Fig. 7. Plasminogen and plasmin synergize with growth factors. (A) Appearance of organoids treated with growth factors with or without added plasminogen (Pg). Note the increase in the size and number of branches of the organoids when plasminogen was added together with the growth factors. (B) Effect of plasminogen on the percentage of organoids with branches. Shown are the percentage of branching organoids in the presence of growth factors alone (white bars) and growth factors+Pg (hatched bars). The increase in the number of organoids with branches when plasminogen was added together with the growth factor, compared with the group without plasminogen was statistically significant in all cases except for the KGF group, (^**, P0.01) and (^***, P0.001). (C) Effect of plasminogen on the number of branches per organoid: one to five branches (white bars), six to ten branches (hatched bars) and more than ten branches (cross hatched bars). There were increased branches per organoid also for the KGF-treated cultures. The figures show the mean±s.d. of six wells in two independent experiments. Scale bars: 400 µm in A.